Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Butter. Plain & Simple.

Over the month of January, I was blessed to teach a course all about food. From the biology of how plants & crops grow, how we harvest & transport, how we process, package & advertise our food, and finally, how we prepare food in our own kitchen.

Sound like fun?

It was.

One of the things we did during the course was make butter.

I had never made butter before, and I thought it would be fun to do alongside a class period that looked at historical approaches to cooking and preparing food.

Before class, I prepared a small quart jar by washing it well and sterilizing it in warm water. Then, I added 1 C whipping cream and a dash of salt.

I closed the lid, and brought it into my classroom.

The students passed it around the room, each giving it a shake for a few moments before passing it along to their peers. After about 20 minutes, we had butter!

Then, I used the butter the next day to make them breakfast. They really enjoyed that.

Butter

Materials

1 C whipping cream

salt, optional

Glass canning jar, or a jar with a tight lid

Directions

Pour the cold whipping cream into a glass canning jar that is cleaned and sterilized. Sprinkle in a dash of salt. Seal tightly.

Shake. Shake.Shake.

You’ll need to shake for about 20 minutes until the cream solidifies.

When you have a solid, decant the liquid (that’s buttermilk… use that for pancakes!) and if desired, shape the butter into a stick. Alternatively, you can keep it in the jar you made it in.

I used to do this with my pre-school classes, before I retired. I used baby food jars. Then we'd eat the final product, sweet creamy butter, on crackers. The kids loved it, but never had a class not ask why it wasn't yellow... so sad.

I have used it to bake -- it doesn't melt in the microwave very easily, but gets nice and soft if you let it come to room temperature. I would guess it would freeze well too, but I honestly haven't tried it. Let me know if you do!

I did this today & it did make the butter - amazing! However, there wasn't really much liquid to remove, & the butter was pretty soft - definitely wouldn't have been able to "shape" the butter into a stick as you suggested. I shook for nearly 20 minutes. Do you think I needed to go longer, or does my result sound OK to you? It tastes OK - definitely creamy, but I need to add more salt next time - I barely put any in.

When cooking, please make sure to follow kitchen hygiene and safety -- cook meat until internal temperature is at safe levels, always check labels for allergens, and use caution in the kitchen -- I love sharing recipes, but I am not liable for damages done as a result of trying these recipes.